letting the dog off the lead and other lessons

Yesterday was the best day of the summer.  We finally got a chance to put up the tent.  We made plans this year to go camping for my daughters significant birthday she will be twelve, but the summer has proved to be very very wet, without too many dry patches.  Yesterday I grabbed the opportunity to put the second hand tent we bought earlier in the summer.  Being the cautious type I decided it was best to have a trial run in the garden, luckily ED 's friends called so after I fed them they put up the tent.  It was a momentous day as it was the first time ever I used a BBQ.  I have always thought this was a mans job and it was one of the few things I left entirely to my ex-husband, so maybe 10 years without BBQing is enough for anyone.  As always I digress...
So continuing the the slow but gentle move outside my comfort zone.  I decided to run a little with the dog , she really needs a good run so I when no one was looking I started to jog, It was surprisingly easy.  It brought back memories of being younger and playing chase and the freedom of just being in my body and fit and young.  I then of course ate a big piece of flan when I came home , but there you go.  and to top off my day off edging up to the edge of the comfort zone, I let the dog off the lead.  Wow it was amazing, she did not run off.  I had imagined if I left her off the lead outside, she would just run and run and run and never come back, but I was wrong.  Our old dog did that at every opportunity he ran off.  He was my ex husbands dog and very old when we moved in together, and while we taught him lots of new tricks, staying in the garden was not one of them.  Dogguswoggus as she is affectionately known has a lovely kind and gentle nature.  She was happy to be off lead but it was just like she was in the garden with us, having a bit of a run around, a bit of a play, quite alot of jumping with the joy of being outside (mostly on me).  She did not even run straight into the sea as I had imagined.

I suppose I learned to trust myself and my dog a little more today.  I laerned that a slow genle meander to the edge of the comfort zone is ok and while others mught push me to exceed my limits I know where they are and it is just a question of moveing at my own pace to the next stage of life.

So today I will keep that in mind as I move further beyond the comfort zone.